chapter i introduction -...
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CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
Structural reforms which were introduced by the
government in the early 90s made the Indian economy more
market-oriented. This Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP)
involved a number of measures to be undertaken to change the
direction of the economy in commensuralion with the globalisation
policy. These changes were expected to increase economic growth
and promote the growth of the private sector. The programme was
framed to cover changes mainly in government policies, which
affected industry, trade, public enterprise, finance, etc. The
government planned to mould Indian industries to cope with
international competitiveness. In this regard, it was expected to
bring administrative changes, which make it easier for the new
firms to enter the industrial sector and for the existing industries to
expand, modernise or diversify their operations. In this entire
process, entrepreneurship plays a very significant role.
Entrepreneurship is very closely related to the culture and
social structure of a people. The concept of entrepreneurship has
been identified as the most important factor in the process of
economic development. Since the time it was introduced by
1
Richard Cantillon, an Irishman who lived in France in the early 18th
century, the concept has been mostly used in economics
(Silberman, 1956). It was realised that entrepreneurial efficiency,
which was equated with innovation, sometimes, sponsors changes
m techniques of production leading to the development of the
area/region.
An entrepreneur is the kingpin in the growth process. He is
a catalyst and propeller of change. Whatever might be the supply
and potentiality of other factors, nothing happens until such factors
of production are galvanised into action by enterprise. "Gap-
filling" and "input completing" capacities are the unique
characteristics of entrepreneurs. They are men of vision, drive and
talent, who seek out opportunities and promptly seize them for
exploitation. By their restless endeavours, they contribute
immensely for the rise of the material well being of any nation.
Swamy observed that, "If Columbus discovered America,
Tenzing Norvey climbed Mount Everest and Neil Armstrong
landed on Moon, the driving force behind their accomplishments
may be traced to an incessant urge to achieve the will to conquer
and a penchant desire to excel others which are manifestations of
what is conceptually known as entrepreneurship. History is fully
replete with the spectacular rise or ignominous fall of societies of
nations because of the abundance or the lack of the spirit of
enterprise among the populace. It is the supply of people with
entrepreneurial thrust that makes a nation to march ahead or lag
behind in the process of development. It is this spirit of enterprise
that transformed man from a simple nomad to cattle-rearer, settled
agriculturist, a trader, an industrialist and what not. The vision of
social scientists who are bogged down for decades and decades
together in search of answers for economic development appears to
have narrowed down on entrepreneurship which is considered to
be a vital component for the process of growth of any nation"
(1988:vii).
The Practitioners in each of the social sciences tend to define
the problem so that the principal determinants of entrepreneurial
performance fall within their discipline (Kilby 1971: 4). Many a
scholar defined entrepreneurship in terms of an activity than as an
attribute. Mc Clelland defined that, "an entrepreneur is simply
some one who exercises control over production that is not just for
personal consumption" (1961:114). In some other studies (Kilby
1971) a list of entrepreneurial roles are included in the definition,
such as: 1) perception of market opportunities, 2) gaining command
over scarce resources, 3) purchasing inputs, 4) marketing of the
product and responding to competition, 5) Management of human
relations within the firm, 6) management of customer and supplier
relations, 7) finance mobilisation, 8) upgrading processes and
product quality, and 9) introduction of new production techniques
and product
Therefore, the term entrepreneurship used in the present
study refers to the performance of the above roles by a weaver
entrepreneur with his/her capacity of risk taking and the ability of
adaptation to the changing situations (such as innovations in the
occupation). Thus, our study regards entrepreneurs as those who
have the ability and attempt to achieve something in the profession
against all odds. A successful entrepreneur is one who makes use
of different resources at his command - cultural, social,
professional and technical - and moves up in the entrepreneurial
ladder.
Kilby described the defining of entrepreneur as "Hunting the
Heffalump". According to him, " The Heffalump is a rather large
and important animal. It has been hunted by many individuals
using various ingenious trapping devices, but no one so far has
succeeded in capturing him. All who claim to have caught sight of
him report that he is enormous, but they disagree on his
particularities. Not having explored his current habitat with
sufficient care, some hunters have used as bait their own favorite
dishes and have then tried to persuade people that what they
caught was a Heffalump. However, few are convinced, and the
search goes on"(Kilby 1971:1).
An important question for any theory of entrepreneurship is
to identify the channels by which entrepreneurial personalities or
groups are directed into business pursuits. Economic theory under
Schumpeter (1934), Cochran (1971) and others considered
entrepreneurship as a significant factor in the operation of
economy. The importance given to the entrepreneur as a causal
4
variable in the process is strongly conditioned by the particular
scholar's field to use it so flexibly and centrally in economic
literature.
The psychologists identified certain non-materialistic and
inner psychic concerns as the prime movers for risk bearing and
innovation. However, they did not deny that the extreme economic
inducements or impediments would significantly effect
entrepreneurial activity.
Contrary to economists and psychologists, the sociologists
argued in favour of societal values and status hierarchy as the
prime movers of entrepreneurial supply in a society. According to
them, the economic incentives are a part of a larger social system,
which in its entirety will determine the extent of entrepreneurial
activity.
Sociological studies on entrepreneurial supply trace their
theoretical constructs from Weberian-Parsonian tradition and
Durkheim and the Levi-Strauss tradition. The key elements in the
system of Weberian-Parsonian tradition are cultural values, role
expectations and social sanctions. Sociologists of this ilk (e.g.,
Cochran 1962) consider entrepreneurs not as being deviant or
supernormal individuals, but rather as representing society's model
personality. According to them the individual's performance as a
businessman will be influenced by three factors:
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1. His own attitude towards his occupation,
2. The role expectations held by the sanctioning groups, and
3. The operational requirements of the job.
But the society's values are the most important
determinants, highlighted by the first two factors.
The other sociological group on entrepreneurship, that is
related to Durkhiem and Levi-Straussian group, agreed with the
above group on certain points but disagreed with them on certain
other points. While sharing on the position that the personality
factors have hardly anything to do with entrepreneurial
performance, they also have denied the role of societal values that
show impact on entrepreneurship. For example, Young's (1971)
theory of change is based on society's incorporation of reactive
subgroups, which was concerned with inter-group relations.
The behaviourist perspective in sociological literature on
entrepreneurship reduces values and personality types to
behavioural patterns. According to them, behavioural patterns are
determined by reinforcing and aversive stimuli present in the
societal context. Hence entrepreneurial behaviour is a function of
the surrounding social structure, both past and present, and can be
readily influenced by manipulable economic and social incentives.
Theories of Kunkel (1971) Holland and Skinner (1961) and Homans
(1961) reflect these viewpoints.
6
In this background, when viewed in a broader spectrum, the
concern for entrepreneurship becomes all the more important
Particularly, its importance has been highly felt since the
government in early 90s introduced the structural reforms. The
government planned to mould Indian industry to cope with
international competitiveness. In this regard, it was expected to
bring administrative changes, which will pave the way for new
firms to enter the industrial sector and for existing industries to
expand, modernise, or diversify their operations.
The involvement of social scientists, other than economists,
has been minimal in the development enterprise. There are a
number of reasons for this. By and large, policy makers and
planners, who are predominantly quantitative oriented economists,
rarely consider goals not directly related to economic development.
Also, social commitment to economic growth is often considered
unimportant. In this regard, there is a greater need for
entrepreneurial planning for development in the country, more so
to better the conditions of small entrepreneurs like weavers. In this
context, an anthropological understanding of entrepreneurship will
be very rewarding.
But any attempt for a planned modernisation must take
cognisance of the linkages of the traditional pattern of behaviour in
the socio-cultural system. The kind of approaches adopted by
planners and policy makers were top-down and uniform in their
approach with a scant regard to social, cultural, ecological and
7
economic diversities. Except for the lone voice of anthropologists,
there was hardly any attempt for micro-level planning for
enhancing distributive justice and growth. Now it is widely
acknowledged that the anthropological approaches are more
suitable for development planning and people's participation. This
is equally true in the case of entrepreneurial development wherein
the anthropologists show concern for the variation in human
nature. Also, in a country like India, there are inevitable
ambiguities in interpretation of terms or categories with
overlapping boundaries. In these circumstances, as Bardhan
observed, an ethnographer can cross check data from one context to
another as he resides in the field area. Staying in the field becomes
an asset in measuring change. Hence, "A micro cosmic study is
more flexible in reshaping its investigative strategy midstream and
probing an unanticipated or new phenomenon in depth" (Bardhan
1989: 5).
In this background, social anthropologists, as well as
sociologists, in their studies on entrepreneurship in an industry or a
factory, have to focus on community life and the more familiar
social institutions involved. Arensberg (1942) felt that such studies
on the relationship between community and industry helps to trace
the effects of a particular innovation or a particular invention upon
established folkways or upon the older communities. Also, he
views that the form of the community and its established behaviour
in many cases exert as strong an influence on organisation in
8
industry as does the newer technical innovations upon social
structure. He argues that, "A particular shift in industrial
technique becomes a specific change in organisation among the
persons of a specific community, to be related at once to further,
subsequent changes in other non-industrial patterns of organisation
among the same men in their lives outside of work in the same
community. Once such a parallelism between industrial and
community organisation can be set up and dealt with, specific
consequences can be traced from event to event and from behavior
to behavior among the same population, and the direction of the
influence - whether from community to industry or from industry
to community - can be followed explicitly" (1942:3). Further
Arensberg calls for evolving a sociological approach to study these
aspects in industrial organisations.
The term entrepreneur has only slowly come into the
anthropologists' vocabulary. Raymond Firth (1967) observed that
early anthropologists made little use of the concept and he
suggested that the anthropologists should study entrepreneurs
more widely, in primitive, peasant and industrial societies, and
even in relation to the complex problems of modern business
administration.
II
REVIEW OF LITERATURE:
Several theories have been postulated on entrepreneurship
in different disciplines of social sciences. Some of these theories on
entrepreneurship have drawn psychological assumptions, whereas
some others have depended on sociological factors in bringing out
the reasons for entrepreneurship. Schumpeter (1934) terms
entrepreneurs as economic leaders, who are individually motivated
by an atavistic will power, who occur randomly in any ethnically
homogeneous population. McCleliand's (1966 and 1971) theory, as
set forth in the Achieving Society, can be seen as a development of
Weber's Protestant ethic in which an intermediating psychological
motive (the need for achievement) is introduced. Hagen (1971) in a
paper on the theory of social change agrees with the ideas
presented in the Achieving Society. Hagen's theory views
economic development as a process of technological change, which
is brought about by the technological creativity of individuals in
the society. Thus, Hagen sees the entrepreneur as a creative
problem solver interested in things in the practical and
technological realm and driven by a duty to achieve. Young (1971)
adopts an explanation of personality characteristics, which
mediates between structural factors and consequent economic
growth as causal factors for entrepreneurship.
In spite of a wide recognition of the importance of social and
cultural factors by economists, Cochran (1971) attempted a
10
comprehensive general model. In this model he concentrated on
how the variables that seem most essential affects entrepreneurial
decisions. A certain level of education, social status and types of
cultural conditioning represents the model personality. A channel
through which diverse social forces translate their effects into
economic action, a point where social factors can be observed and
estimated for relative intensities, carries the modal entrepreneur.
He emphasises that the executive plays a social role partly shaped
by the modal type of personality, which comes from the social
conditioning of his generation. He further states that, "While the
unusual characters will always depart from the norms, in general
invention and innovation will tend to be along lines congenial to
the type of conditioning" (Cochran 1971:97). According to him,
anthropologists interested in change support this premise by
saying that new items in the culture must be not only physically
but also psychologically available. What is important to note is that
where a cultural setting provides a congenial atmosphere,
individuals or groups conceptualise and use a new idea or item to
become entrepreneurs.
Mishra and Sohal (1985) have identified the level of
motivation as an entrepreneurial attribute among the milk
producers in rural Gujarat. They call for improving the
motivational levels among farmers. Thakur (1988) highlighted
entrepreneurial strategy towards labour in sustaining the textile
industry in India. Singh's (1985) micro-structural analysis of the
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carpet-weaving entrepreneurs in Uttar Pradesh was aimed at
understanding the impact of entrepreneurial development on social
change.
At a time when the tendency to discard entrepreneurship as
a significant factor was popular, Schumpeter put the entrepreneur
at the center of the process of economic development. He states
that "The entrepreneurial kind of leadership, as distinguished from
other kinds of economic leadership such as we should expect to
find in a primitive tribe or a communist society, is of course colored
by the conditions peculiar to it. It has none of that glamour which
characterizes other kinds of leadership. It consists in fulfilling a
very special task, which only in rare cases appeals to the
imagination of the public. For its success, keenness, and vigor are
not more essential than a certain narrowness which seizes the
immediate chance and nothing else" (1971: 66).
As the shortage of factors of production lead to
underdevelopment in a region, so does an acute shortage of
entrepreneurship, as one of the limiting factors, in economic
development. Berna (1958) considers the entrepreneur, who
organises the community's resources, as most important. In his
study of medium-scale enterprises in Madras State (presently,
Tamil Nadu) in South India, he analysed the patterns of
entrepreneurship in South India. He observed that the entry into
the engineering industry is quite democratic and open to all. This
12
is contrary to the prevalent notion that entrepreneurs in a particular
industry will come from a similar economic and social background.
Hagen (1971) argues that traditional society sometimes
sponsors a creative personality with reinforced values and
innovative attitude. Such personalities emerge into a group of
individuals, creative, and alienated from traditional values, driven
by a growing burning drive to prove themselves. They seek an
area to do this to gain power and thus against the existing values in
that traditional society and thus turn innovative. He points out
that, "The drive for security, self-reassurance, and power will
surely lead many innovational individuals to technological
innovation, though frequently within social forms differing from
those of the West" (1971:137).
It has been postulated that entrepreneurial activities will
emerge more or less spontaneously when economic conditions are
favourable. However, the importance of cultural factors in
entrepreneurship is ignored for long. Such a revised
understanding of modern entrepreneurship is long overdue. Since
entrepreneurship is embedded in culture, such dynamics must be
incorporated into the studies on entrepreneurship. Berger's (1991)
is one such attempt to fill this lacuna. She attempted to identify
major cultural factors behind the rise of a distinctly modern term,
entrepreneurship, in the societies other than the West. In this
regard, she tried to set forth the contours of a cultural theory of
entrepreneurship broad enough to integrate a variety of
approaches, and to explore the relationship between culture and
entrepreneurship in these societies. Lavoie (1991) also argued on
similar lines with regard to the creative processes of discovery and
interpretation that are integral to entrepreneurship. He states that,
"entrepreneurship necessarily takes place within culture, it is
utterly shaped by culture, and it fundamentally consists in
interpreting and influencing culture" (1991: 36).
The beliefs and values the migrants bring with them will
have a bearing on the processes of organising their economic
activities. Redding (1991) addresses the above issues in his study
on culture and entrepreneurial behaviour among the overseas
Ghinese living in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, and Indonesia.
He attempts to reconstruct their belief systems and values and
relates those patterns to the existing managerial behaviour in the
Chinese family business. He concludes that, 'The movement
toward modernity has not been accompanied in these cases by a
noticeable rise in individualism. These societies are fundamentally
paternalistic, and operate to secure trust and co-operation by bonds
of obligation rather than by legal contractual relations. A universal
model of development is thus apparently not tenable. The
entrepreneurial organizations are, as elsewhere, embedded in their
societal contexts and can not be comprehended without reference
to those contexts" (1991:152).
Baviskar (1980) argued that the culture and tradition of a
group influences its members to acquire the attributes of innovators
14
and entrepreneurs. These attributes among the migrant Mali caste
families in Kopargoan area in Ahmednagar district of Maharashtra
kept them continuously mobile in search of irrigated land. This
urge among the Mali forced them to migrate to new areas wherever
irrigated land was available. According to him "The Malis had
[therefore] the necessary experience and skills to cultivate irrigated
land, an experience of marketing, better financial resources to
undertake the cultivation of cash crops such as sugarcane, and
pressure on land in their own area obliged them to look for new
opportunities elsewhere. Moreover, they had a fairly long
established tradition of migrating to new areas in search of
irrigated land. In their culture and tradition the Malis displayed
the attributes of innovators and entrepreneur" (1980: 22).
Presence of some social groups featured by certain
stereotypes, traditions, occupational directions, attitudes and social
position sponsor or streamline industrial development in various
parts of the country. Such groups evolve identity and get
recognised as "commercial community", which brings them an
advantageous position in their venture. Marwaris, who performed
crucial role in the development of industrial and commercial
economy of India, are one such group. Timberg (1978), who
analysed the entrepreneurial performance among Marwaris,
assigns certain industrial factors, apart from commercial practices
and the possession of a commercially oriented "resource group/'
for entrepreneurial success.
Landa (1991) highlights the middleman- entrepreneur role
among 'Ethnically Homogeneous Middleman Groups', such as the
Jews in Medieval Europe, the Chinese in Southeast Asia, the
Indians in East and Central Africa, the Lebanese in West Africa etc.
According to her, the cultural norms of behaviour embedded in an
ethnic group having an efficient social structure will facilitate
mutual aid and cooperation among its members. She states that
such contacts with mutual cooperation become a differential group
advantage over other ethnic groups to create appropriate
middleman-entrepreneur roles for themselves. She terms such
contacts as ethnic-specific asset which function as cultural bearing
units to maintain middleman entrepreneur roles.
Godsell (1991) examined the community-supported
entrepreneurship among the South African groups (Indians,
Afrikaans and Urban Blacks) as against the individualistic
entrepreneurs of the West. She finds that the African Indians,
among the South African groups, command a deep-rooted
entrepreneurial culture of long standing, while the other two
groups have had considerably greater difficulty in responding to
entrepreneurial challenge. She demonstrated how factors of
culture shape the response to economic challenges. Gupta (1991) in
his study on the entrepreneurs from Bengal and Eastern India
identifies two sets of forces. One set is represented on the plane of
entrepreneurial autonomy by qualities of individualism, social
conditioning, and the propensity to exploit structural
16
opportunities. The second set of forces is made up of structural
determinants such as religion, culture, and socio-political
conditions. Gupta points out that, "In spite of waves of historical
influences and unfettered interaction with other major religions,
entrepreneurs from Eastern India remain acutely conscious of their
culture. Some are increasingly impassioned about their regional
identity" (1991:135).
Singer (1956 and 1966), Srinivas (1958) and Goheen (1958)
revealed the capacity of Hinduism to adapt to changing conditions.
The above scholars have refuted the presumptions that the
traditional elements in Indian society come in the way of
modernisation and development. The modernisation process in a
society and culture should be seen in its totality. Some (Rodan
(1966); Whartan (1966); Wellisz, (1966); and Gerschenkron (1966))
argued that economic performance is closely Linked to a broad
range of human life. Economic achievement is directly tied to the
spirit of modernising industry, agriculture technology and
entrepreneurship of a people, and the nature and policies of the
government
What mattered most in the origins of entrepreneurship
among the Meiji, Japan, was the new ideology and new system of
values that each man had to absorb. These entrepreneurs had to be
men of new era. Though capital was supplied, it was the necessary
change in ideology or values facilitated by certain key factors that
marked the features of entrepreneurial history during the Meiji
regime in Japan. The dissatisfaction at home led these men to leave
home and become economically uprooted. Thus, they were
compelled to get accustomed to a learning process, which became a
vehicle for the new ideas and an aid in grasping the complexities of
the enterprise system. The conducive bureaucratic atmosphere
stemmed from their sharing of a common task with the
entrepreneurs made them to mould themselves as entrepreneurs
(Hirschmeier, 1971). However, Yamamura (1971) argues that such
viewpoints are hardly supportable when a closer examination is
made of the behaviour, decisions, and motivations of the leading
Meiji entrepreneurs. Therefore, he calls for including the more
globally acceptable profit incentive as a principal determinant of
entrepreneurial behaviour of the early Meiji years.
Mayor (1961) provides a basis for understanding the role of
the Indians in Fiji, where he studied the role of associations. He
shows that the economic, religious and political activities of these
associations as well as the degree to which a man participates in
these activities when the primordial factors - such as
neighbourhoods, kinsmen, or people with same occupation,
religion, caste or cultural background - are in common. But there is
a factor underlying all these is entrepreneurship, which prompts
one to exploit the above factors.
Traditional norms and institutional patterns of Indian
society are not considered to be conducive for introducing modern
technology that influences occupational structure and
18
entrepreneurship, thus affecting changes in socio-economic status
of the people. On the contrary, Seth (1979) points out that the
flexible nature of Indian traditions furthers this change. He argues
that, in fact, entrepreneurs perceive it easier to move from the
moral agricultural nexus to modern industrial work.
Nandy (1973) observed a differential entrepreneurial success
in two communities having modern and traditional outlook,
respectively. He observed that the entrepreneurial exposures -
through primordial ties, aspects of personal modernity, extent of
participation in high culture of societies and other motives as listed
in other entrepreneurial studies - in an enterprising community
contribute substantially to entrepreneurship.
The entrepreneurial skills are highly streamlined in the
homogenous groups and ethnic links have led some individuals to
shift from family management to professional management
(Papanek, 1971; Timberg, 1978; and Nafziger, 1978). According to
Harris (1971), entrepreneurial success in migrant minority groups is
linked to geographic, occupational and social mobility. Kasdon
analyses the patterns of entrepreneurship among the Basque rural
community and points out how social structure, which includes
family structure, migration, etc., moulds a person
entrepreneurially. Commenting on the social bases of
entrepreneurship, Kasdon observed that, "Socialization influences
adult behaviour, but how one is socialized is limited and
influenced by the institutional arrangements of his society.
19
Institutional factors may cause peoples socialized by the same
practices to have quite different personalities" (1971: 237).
Moving away from the functionalist idea of bounded groups
(factories or neighbourhoods), which always looked at the systems
of relations as something working towards a kind of balance, and
from the over-simplifications of the transactional theory,
Holmstrom (1976) attempted to develop anthropology of factory
workers in India from a more dialectical account of industrial
workers' situation. Keeping in view the changed values and social
relations in the factory, he interpreted that the tradition of choice
and equality is becoming central, because it is more relevant to the
situation and aspirations of new classes or kinds of people.
Further, he observed that, "a hierarchical, organic tradition, which
was dominant, is becoming marginal instead" (1976: 136). Thus, in
the present changed scenario, entrepreneurial opportunities cut
across the traditional boundaries. However, in enterprises where
the traditional callings have a bearing, the castes with those
traditional callings will have an advantage over the others. In this
context, the observation of Ramu and Sivaprasad (1981) is quite
apt. They point out that, in case of migrations of people to urban
centres, in the absence of any skills, the traditional caste
occupations act as portable kits.
Entrepreneurship conjoins several other key variables that
link the socio-cultural milieu with the degree of economic
development. In his detailed survey on Indian entrepreneurship,
20
Nafziger (1971) observed that despite the impediments to mobility
due to the caste system, there are certain dynamic elements in
Indian social structure that allow for the rate of entrepreneurial
participation. Similarly, he considers the Indian joint family as a
unit of entrepreneurship, as it supplies the necessary managerial
and financial resources for business operations. Also when the
joint family as a unit of several members provide the entrepreneur
with networks, this can determine the access to credit and
opportunities for mobility in entrepreneurial endeavours. Further,
as a part of the approaches to future studies on Indian
entrepreneurship he considers the need for studies on analysis of
markets for entrepreneurs and other productive resources.
Umamohan and Rao in their study stated that,
"Entrepreneurial skill does not spring, as many think, from the
pedestal of education, occupational background, or caste; nor does
it depend on age or previous experience to attain success in an
industrial activity. Technical skill and knowledge may help an
individualist to shine at his helm; but, at Grass-root level, it is not a
must. People with little or no experience also shown their mettle in
running their industries with good results" (1987:13-14).
Altaf (1983) touched upon the aspect of human factor in
industrialisation in entrepreneurial studies. He examined the
origins and occupations of the entrepreneurs and found that
aspects such as power, prestige, self-confidence and informal
contacts play a significant role in entrepreneurial development
21
Murthy's (1988 and 1989) study of entrepreneurship in two
small towns, Gudiwada and Anakapalle in Andhra Pradesh, was
aimed at identifying the socio-economic origins of the
entrepreneurs emerging in small towns and the forces that led to
create an entrepreneur. He also examined the occupational and
geographic mobility of the entrepreneurs through generations. He
concluded that, "the hold of caste structure on occupation in India
is getting loosened throwing the doors of entrepreneurial
opportunities wide open to people who are willing to take risks
irrespective of their caste origins" (1989: 215).
Bose (1975:194-95) highlights how the locational advantages
are utilised for the expansion of traditional industry in Katwa
village of West Bengal. He stated that a village being situated on
riverside with a port, roads radiated into the surrounding
industrial town motivated the weavers to strengthen their
occupational benefits. They could establish links to the markets
suitable for buying yarn and also for disposing of their products to
wholesalers. He remarked that such an accommodation of
occupational status to the changed situation was possible only with
entrepreneurial skills.
Ethnic migrant populations are, mostly, said to be successful
entrepreneurs. Contrary to this view, Khanka (1990) has observed
that the participation of outsiders in entrepreneurship is always
smaller. He states the locational disadvantages play a key role in
keeping the new comers low in entrepreneurial success.
22
Entrepreneurship depends not only on the socio-cultural
setting but even depends on the way the community is organised
into cooperative effort to achieve a greater participation in the
enterprise. This can be seen in the study made by Chang (1971),
who has highlighted the technological and institutional changes
centering on the development of the local fishing industry in a
Japanese Island community. According to him, the technological
change involved wide acceptance of innovative elements, which
have direct bearing upon modernisation of fishing techniques for
local fishermen and fishing operations of the community, as a
whole. He concluded that the socio-economic consciousness of
modernisation, besides playing a key role in reshaping the local
fishing operations and the economy, have led to a greater
involvement of the local population in all spheres of socio-
economic affairs. Effective readjustment to local social conditions
and the fishing industry was accomplished by the cooperative.
Further, he stated that, "While imposing changes on the local scene,
the fishing co-operative has adjusted to changing economic
conditions with less difficulty than have individual kin groups,
even though the basic fishing operation clings to the traditional
mode of the household unit" (1971:168).
A number of aspiring entrepreneurs, who have learnt their
entrepreneurial skills in small-scale industries, have risen to the
level of corporate managers. The small-scale entrepreneurs are
susceptible to forces promoting a commercial orientation rather
23
than production orientation. Van Der Veen (1976) felt that this is
due to the fact that their enterprises are generally material intensive
and that the opportunity costs of searching for inexpensive material
inputs are low. He called for an appropriate policy formulation by
the Indian government to meet the situation.
Padmini Swaminathan (1994) presented data on private
industry in Tamil Nadu in order to reflect the ability and capability
of entrepreneurship in the performance of private sector after the
introduction of economic reforms in the country. Kanitkar's study
(1994) is based on quantitative data, which discusses the emergence
of successful entrepreneurs and owners of micro-enterprises in
rural India. He examined the socio-economic profile of the
entrepreneurs and their motivation for shifting from agriculture-
based occupation to non-farm activities. He observed that the
informal apprenticeship arrangement became useful and valuable
in this case, irrespective of their traditional backgrounds.
Effective management systems and other economic factors
are generally highlighted in several studies on entrepreneurship.
But the influence of external factors like environment cannot be
ignored in entrepreneurial success. Tandon (1975) focussed his
study in this direction. According to him, the business executive
should study the nature and character of control over the enterprise
exercised by the environment. He emphasised that an
entrepreneur should try to adjust to the conditions prevailing and
24
thus influencing the environment in order to make it congenial and
favourable for developing an enterprise.
Rating the performance of a firm on the basis of its low price
and high quality of production is not sufficient but the competitive
spirit of it can be rated keeping in view the incentives and
innovations adopted by the management. Sen (1996) calls these
factors as entrepreneurship. He customarily distinguishes between
different production processes of a firm, viz., i) basic research, ii)
applied research, iii) development and iv) diffusion. He entrusted
greater importance to the last point, which, according to him, is the
spread of innovations throughout the industry.
The agricultural innovation becomes uniquely specific to
each farm and hence it stays with each entrepreneur farmer
because it is a specialised and individual attribute of each farm,
which cannot be brought in the market. Also, while industrial
entrepreneurship can be transferred from one firm to another
without much loss of entrepreneurial talents, agricultural
entrepreneurship is not transferable, as it is farm - specific,
location-specific and product-specific. At the outset, Kalirajan and
Shand (1994) proposed a method for measuring the entrepreneurial
abilities of farmers differentiating these from their managerial
abilities.
Heredero (1979) gives an entirely different understanding
about the agricultural entrepreneurs. He considers that, an
25
agricultural entrepreneur is the one who brakes with outdated and
insufficient farming technology and adopts a better and more
productive one. He concluded that the agriculture entrepreneurs
are the farmers who introduce better agricultural technology, and
also institutional changes, effecting changes in socio-economic
structure of the village. He favours realisation of co-operative
philosophy to streamline the entrepreneurial activity among all the
farmers in a village.
Entrepreneurship is just an innovation or capacity to adapt
to the situations. The work of Swamy (1988) is purported to assess
the thrust of entrepreneurial farmers in coastal Andhra Pradesh,
who have settled down in the command areas of major irrigation
projects in the State. In this empirically tested study, he brought
into light the socio-economic factors in post-independent India,
which ushered a new era in irrigation development and the
consequent migration of enterprising farmers to the command
areas of such irrigation projects. He remarks that the
entrepreneurial act is indispensable for the growth and
development of any society, irrespective of whether the field of
activity pertains to industry or agriculture or something else, for
the transformation of traditional forms into a modern one becomes
impracticable without entrepreneurial ability.
Entrepreneurial spirit guides an individual towards success
despite many difficulties. Nabi's (1988: 156) study on individual
entrepreneurs in agriculture machinery industry highlighted the
26
above aspects. He stated that these entrepreneurs could succeed
despite their lack of any effective access to the economic
institutions in the larger society and even without any
encouragement from the government institutions. Nandapurkar
(1982) felt that the entrepreneurial behaviour, and thus
entrepreneurial development, among the small farmers could be
achieved by means of educational programmes.
Attwood (1993) discussed about commercial peasantry and
the enterprising peasantry, the two classes among the peasants. He
explains about how peasants built a new political economy to suit
their own interests. He observed that the existing qualities such as
sophisticated economic and political skills, risk abilities and
survival strategies make them enter into the commercial economy.
In other words, they consciously evolve skills and strategies to cope
with risk, to broaden and diversify their economic base, to take
advantage of new opportunities.
Entrepreneurship is an undisputed factor in economic
development, even though it's trends vary from free economy to
that of a regulated economy. But at a time when almost all
countries are following the line of open market economy they
started hastening the process of economic development through
industrialisation. In this regard Mishra (1990) studied the efforts of
the government to develop entrepreneurship in underdeveloped
region - Bihar. He remarked about various monetary and non-
monetary incentives like the development of infrastructure,
27
assistance in marketing and procuring raw materials, providing
finance or granting subsidies on investment in its venture to create
an atmosphere conducive for the entrepreneurs.
Many scholars also have agreed upon the need for urgent
research on entrepreneurial development. Thus, while Akhouri
and Bhattacharjee (1979) have presented a strategy for selecting the
entrepreneurs, i.e., beneficiaries in government-sponsored schemes,
on the basis of available experiences outlining the characteristics of
entrepreneurs. This type of contention mainly reflects the view that
the main objective of entrepreneurship is to contribute to the
development of the society by developing the persons who perform
entrepreneurial roles. The selection of persons for performing
entrepreneurial roles depend on how the given society (in which
the entrepreneur has to operate) is perceived for social
development.
Staley and Morse (1971) called for an action programme for
developing entrepreneurship. The factors of this programme
included good environment setting, good government, an
expanding economy, human resources development, natural
resources development, basic utilities and services, laws,
regulations, and procedures for small-scale entrepreneurship.
Chakravarthy (1987) has discussed the present status and emerging
priorities in entrepreneurship development programme. He
highlighted the wide variety of self-employment programmes for
different target groups, involvement of organisations in conducting
28
the development programmes; efforts of the Department of Science
and Technology and Government of India, etc., as the main features
of entrepreneurship development programme in India.
Mathai (1979) hypothesises that the reassuring
circumstances and developing individual capabilities of reducing
perceived risks are important to emphasise in a study of success of
rural entrepreneurs. The circumstances, according to Mm, include
studying technical training, counselling, financial aspects, and also
the preparedness of a group within which mutually reinforcing
individuals exist. This means that a study of preparing the
entrepreneur to manage the social relations should take into
consideration the social structure.
Richard P. Taub and Doris L Taub (1989) have highlighted
certain key elements that characterise successful entrepreneurs in
many ways. They stated that the entrepreneurship differed in three
states - Tamil Nadu, Orissa and Punjab - despite the level of
developed technology and degree of modernity or traditionalism in
orientation.
The socio-economic development of a country cannot be
fully realised so long as its women are confined to a subordinate
position and their talents are unexplored. Azad (1988) felt the
necessity to develop the latent skills of entrepreneurship in women,
especially rural women. Rani (1986) in her study on potential
women entrepreneurs reiterates that entrepreneurs are made and
29
not born. She emphasised that entrepreneurship can be planned
and developed by providing appropriate environment. Further,
she observed that right type of training also decides a person in
knowing details regarding incentives, lending institutions, product
technology, demand, preparation of project, profits, etc.
Azad (1988) defines that an entrepreneur is a person who
has all enterprising quality with use of opportunities and an
uncanny vision, commercial acumen and above all, a person who is
willing to take risks because of the adventurous spirit within. He
applied these qualities to women entrepreneurs also and states that
the entrepreneurship among the women could be developed
through proper training and also should keep in view the family
resistance and social constraints for establishing themselves as
independent entrepreneurs.
III
The number of studies reviewed above has shown how the
socio-economic, cultural and psychological factors tend to develop
or retard entrepreneurial performance. Most of them being
economic and managerial, they focussed on economic and
managerial perspective in entrepreneurial success/ failure.
Some studies have highlighted the psychological reasons;
that is, an intermediating psychological motive (the need for
achievement) is introduced as a determining factor in
30
entrepreneurship. The studies that have emphasised sociological
point of view have dwelled upon macro-structural aspects.
Microcosmic studies with anthropological insights are scant}
[except for the studies by Firth (1967), Barth (1960), Singer (1967)
Geertz (1967a and 1967b) and Epstein (1964)] in the literature on
entrepreneurship. By and large, most of the studies are based on
the nature of industrial man in industrial-urban societies,
neglecting the small-scale/cottage based enterprises.
STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM:
Adding to the above reasons, taking note of the research
gaps, the present study investigates into the dynamics of
entrepreneurship among the village based weaving communities
from an anthropological perspective. Studies on entrepreneurship
are mainly in the areas of peasant and large-scale industrial
societies. Studies on the traditional artisan castes and then-
entrepreneurial potential were scanty. Hence, our study makes an
attempt to understand the dynamics of entrepreneurship among
the handloom weavers of Gudekal village, who were affiliated to
the Yemmiganur Weaver's Co-operative Society (YWCS), in
Andhra Pradesh. In this village, weaving is a cottage industry
undertaken by both the traditional and non-traditional weaver
caste/community members.
NEED FOR A STUDY AMONG HANDLOOM WEAVERS:
An entrepreneur takes advantage of the primordial
attachments and in turn acts as a catalyst in organising the local
31
resources. In other words, an entrepreneur streamlines his ideas
into the group to which he belongs, gets the cooperation of his
fellow members and makes the entrepreneurship an integral part of
the particular social structure, which, in turn, nurtures the
entrepreneurial abilities in the society. Particularly, in a situation
like handloom weaving a small scale entrepreneur has to take on
himself/herself, the roles of both the technician and the manager.
Hence, to understand the dynamics of entrepreneurship among the
handloom weavers, an in-depth analysis of entrepreneurial
performance from an anthropological perspective is imminent.
Further, identification and examination of the role of social
institutions - family, kinship, marriage etc., - could help in
providing an insight into the influence of structure upon
entrepreneurship in a particular society.
THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVE:
Our study considers that in case of community-based
enterprises, traditional factors play a significant role in
entrepreneurial development. In order to survive in the market the
traditional enterprises adapt to the changing circumstances. Thus
they become continuously innovative in the process of adapting to
new challenges. In other words, tradition, in small/cottage based
enterprises, strengthens and adds to the entrepreneurial dynamics.
In our study entrepreneurs are regarded as those who have
the ability and try to achieve something in the profession against all
odds. A successful entrepreneur is one who makes use of different
32
resources - professional, technical, social and cultural - and moves
up in the entrepreneurial hierarchy/ladder. In the present study
Master Weavers, Independent Weavers and Middlemen Weavers
are considered as entrepreneurs. Hired Weavers are not treated as
entrepreneurs.
OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY:
1. The first objective of the study was to understand the
structure and organisation of YWCS, it focuses on social and
cultural bases in the formation and sustenance of YWCS.
The study attempts to understand the entrepreneurial
dynamics of YWCS in the process of its growth to the
present level.
2. The Study attempts to analyse the profiles of weaving
castes/communities in Gudekal. The study also attempts to
highlight the differential performance of weavers from
diverse backgrounds.
3. The present study also explores the role of primordial factors
in promoting entrepreneurial qualities among the traditional
weaver castes. In this regard, the study focuses on how a
successful entrepreneur would make use of different
resources - cultural, social, professional and technical - to
move up in entrepreneurial ladder.
4. The study emphasises on how the traditional background of
weavers promotes entrepreneurship performance among
them. It attempts to understand the weavers' life from the
33
standpoint of socialisation practices, family pattern,
marriage, rituals, etc., and their role in the promotion of
entrepreneurship.
METHODOLOGY:
The study concentrated only on handloom weaving
communities in the study village. To facilitate the study and to
obtain data with a scientific rigour, qualitative anthropological
techniques or methods of fieldwork were employed.
The data for the present study were collected with the help
of participant observation, informal in-depth interviews using
detailed check lists, key informant interviews, case studies and
census schedules. Data pertaining to the process of weaving,
agriculture and other activities, rituals - including life cycle rituals,
calendrical festivals, fairs, folklore, disputes, transactions, etc., were
collected through the use of participant observation and informal
discussions. Participation in Caste meetings (see Plate 1.1) and
YWCS board meetings, helped in collecting details regarding
weaving and the factors that are responsible for the sustenance of
the enterprise in the region.
Census of Weavers:
Census schedules were used as an entry point in rapport
establishment with weaver families. Rapport established at this
stage became useful to gather basic data pertaining to
demographic, economic and social aspects, which served as a
34
background for the entire study. This was collected through a
house-to-house census of weaver families covering socio-economic
aspects, such as caste, religion, literacy, educational background,
etc.
Interviews:
The socio-economic data, and also data relating to
entrepreneurial aspects among weavers, were collected through in-
depth interviews using a detailed checklist. Data on caste
organisations, YWCS activities were collected through informal
interviews with the weaver members and YWCS officials. Matters
relating to weavers' cultural and ethical conceptions, which are
considered to be crucial for the study, were also gathered through
informal interviews.
Establishing Rapport:
The major objective of the stay in the study village, during
fieldwork, was to establish and solidify rapport with the villagers.
Rapport building in the beginning was planned through informal
talks. The lifestyle, social categories in the village, problems related
to their economy, health, etc., were discussed in the informal talks
with them. These informal talks included group discussions with
people gathered at tea shops, YWCS and grama Chavadi, etc.
As the fieldwork began in the month of January, most of the
people in the village, other than weavers, were found free from
agricultural works and they could be easily approached in the
35
above centres and also at the places where they were playing cards.
The Chariot festival celebrated in the name of Sri Neelakanteswara
Swamy in Yemmiganur, which took place in the month of January
that year helped in building a better rapport with the weavers. All
communities/castes in the village celebrate this month long
occasion during which they invite friends and relatives for dinner,
etc. This occasion is more important especially for the traditional
weavers. This occasion helped the researcher to identify with
many weavers in the village.
Since the study area was approached through higher level
officials of Directorate of Handlooms and Textiles, the researcher
received warm hospitality. Initially, YWCS officials provided
accommodation in Yemmiganur town. As they were not aware of
the anthropological kind of work, they expected the researcher to
live in their guest house at Yemmiganur, since it is only 3
kilometres away from the study village, Gudekal. As the basic
purpose of participant observation is to obtain data through direct
contact by participating among the people, help was sought from
YWCS to find accommodation in the study village. As observed by
Florence Kluckhohn, " In terms of specific situations in which the
distortion that results from the investigators being an outside agent
is reduced to the minimum" (1940: 2) because of the stay in the
village.
However, it was realised that staying in the guest house for
a few days helped in establishing closer ties with the neighbours -
36
such as designers, accountants, auditors related to YWCS - who
were living adjacent to the guest house. Discussions and hours
long informal talks with them during nights made the researcher to
understand the status of YWCS, which also happen to be one of the
objectives of the present study. Faying utmost attention to what
they said, helped in winning their goodwill. As they were closely
associated with the governing body of the YWCS - Administrator,
Chairman, Secretary, etc., - they carried the same impression about
the researcher to them. This helped in obtaining official records
regarding year-wise members and balance sheet showing the
financial details and other matters related to YWCS.
Key Informant Interviews:
Key informants were identified from among different types
of weavers across different weaver castes/communities. Key
informants were identified after developing sufficient rapport with
the respondents. The key informant interviews provided quite
useful information, which was later cross-checked with the other
weaver informants.
Case study Method:
Van Velsen (1967) prefers to call this method as 'situational
analysis'. According to him by this method the ethnographer not
only presents the reader with abstractions and inferences from his
field material but also provides him some of the material itself.
This puts the reader in a better position to evaluate the
ethnographer's analysis not only on the basis of the internal
37
consistency of the argument but also by comparing the
ethnographic data with the inferences drawn from them. While
discussing the use of Extended Case Method, Max Gluckman (1967:
10) states that the most fruitful use of cases consists in taking a
series of specific incidents affecting the same persons or groups
through a long period of time, and showing how these incidents
are related to the development and change of social relations
among these persons and groups, acting within the framework of
their social system and culture.
In this background, case studies of Master Weavers in silk,
influential persons in weaving profession, Independent Weavers,
Hired Weavers, Weavers Working under Master Weavers,
Middlemen Weavers, destitute women, etc., were collected. They
provided an insight into the role of kin, caste and other primordial
factors in entrepreneurship in the study village.
Besides the above, secondary data from the following sources were
also collected:
Data from Secondary Sources:
• Census records of the village, census data covering
ethnographic details of the village was obtained from MDO.
• Data on land ownership was obtained from the Village
Administrative Officer (VAO). Also data relating to the size of
cultivation units, ownership of livestock, bullock carts, and
agricultural machinery was also obtained. Much of the data in this
38
regard was obtained from the village records available with the
VAO and Village Development Officer (VDO).
• Data from the proceedings of caste meetings, souvenirs and
booklets published on caste mythology of traditional weaving
communities were collected.
• The YWCS reports and annual reports showing the status of
YWCS, extent of its membership, balance sheets, by-laws, etc., were
also collected from YWCS.
Finally the data from different sources were verified from a
cross section of weavers and other resource persons in the village,
for authenticity.
TABLE 1.1: Tools used for primary data collection
39
THE STUDY AREA:
The study area, Yemmiganur, has been a centre for the
variety and quality of cotton products, and it has carved a place for
itself in the Indian handloom industry. A well-established and
popular cooperative society, the Yemmiganur Weavers'
Cooperative Society (YWCS) has brought this handloom industry
in Kurnool district into limelight. The members of the YWCS are
among the best organised in the handloom industry and they also
enjoy the benefits of ideal cooperative society in terms of working
capital, marketing, technical guidance and other welfare measures.
The society has been very popular and exemplary through decades
for its good standards. Its popularity is basically due to the well-
knit social solidarity of the weavers in the area.
There are six branches of YWCS in and around
Yemmiganur. They are Kosigi, Gudekal, Yemmiganur,
Nandavaram, Nagaladinne and Gonegandla. Amongst these,
Gudekal is the most prominent village having large number of
weavers from diverse communities involved in weaving. Also, it is
one of the oldest branches of YWCS.
A few castes in this area are deeply attached to the weaving
occupation. The weavers who are confined to this occupation can
be categorised into a) traditional and b) non-traditional. Kinship
plays a very significant role in this occupation. As a result of this
industry, the weavers in this area have established a wide range of
social networks based on filial and affinal relationships. This
40
attachment and the industry's expansion converted the area into
"one of the quickly developed and mostly industrialized taluks in
the district" (Gazetteer, 1974).
Selection of the Village:
The study village, Gudekal, is situated in the Yemmiganur
Mandal of Kurnool district in Andhra Pradesh. It is three
kilometres away from the South of Yemmiganur, the Mandal
headquarters. Also, it is 25 kilometres away from Mantralavam, a
popular Hindu pilgrimage centre. The area of the village is 1530.92
square kilometres. This village was selected on the basis of
following factors:
1. It has a sizeable number of weaver families, traditional and
non-traditional. This provided us a good opportunity to
understand the social relationships among and between the
traditional and non-traditional weaving castes. In other
words, it would be interesting to know how this occupation
binds various sections of the village together, both socially
and culturally.
2. The village has a YWCS branch, which is one among the six
other branches.
3. The village was one to respond quickly to silk weaving after
the crisis in cotton yarn supply that arose in the early 80s in
YWCS.
Before undertaking a full-fledged fieldwork, a pilot survey
was conducted in the area to select a village for the purpose of our
study. Once the selection procedure to finalise the study village
was completed, the full-length fieldwork was undertaken for one
year during 1996-97. As a first step, a household survey of the
weaving communities in Gudekal was conducted to construct
socio-economic profile of these categories. This helped in getting
the size of the weavers among the traditional and non-traditional
categories.
Based on the household schedules of weavers, weavers from
both traditional and non-traditional castes/communities were
grouped under two categories. They are 1) Cotton Weavers, and 2)
Silk Weavers. Cotton weavers were further categorised into two
types - i) owners working on YWCS looms, and ii) weavers
working on hired looms. Silk weavers were divided into three
categories based on the nature of their work and ownership of
looms. They are 1) Master Weavers, 2) Independent Weavers, and
3) Weavers Working under Master Weavers. There are two types
among Weavers Working under Master Weavers - a) Middlemen
Weavers and b) Non-middlemen Weavers. The above
categorisation has helped in identifying persons for in-depth
interviewing, case studies, key informant interviews, etc (Table 1.1).
Chapter Scheme:
The present study is organised into seven chapters. The first
chapter, Introduction, includes a review of the available studies
42
conducted both in India and abroad on entrepreneurship. The
chapter provides certain conceptual clarifications regarding
entrepreneurship. In general, this chapter attempts to develop a
perspective on entrepreneurship among handloom weavers. Apart
from this, objectives, selection of study area, methodology adopted
for the study is also discussed in this chapter.
The second chapter deals with the profile of the study
area/village. General features regarding climate, flora and fauna,
economic organisation, social organisation of the village, and other
ethnographic aspects are discussed in this chapter.
The third chapter analyses cooperatives in general, and the
structure and organisation of Yemmiganur Weavers' Cooperative
Society (YWCS) in particular. The structure of weaving industry in
the study area and the situation of weavers before the formation of
YWCS, etc., are discussed in detail in this chapter. It also traces the
developments that led to the formation of YWCS. This chapter also
analyses the role of caste and kinship in the emergence and growth
of YWCS. As a response to modernisation, it attempts to analyse,
how the YWCS has evolved from a remote labour intensive to
capital intensive kind of cooperative. This chapter highlights the
entrepreneurial dynamics of YWCS and its leadership.
The fourth chapter deals with the structure of weaving
castes/communities. This chapter analyses the links between the
process of weaving and social structure. As a part of this exercise,
the social background of the weaving communities and different
categories among Cotton and Silk Weavers is analysed in this
chapter. To get a better understanding of entrepreneurship, the
process of weaving in relation to social and cultural factors of the
communities involved is discussed in this chapter.
An attempt is made to observe the influence of social and
cultural bases on entrepreneurship among weaving communities in
the fifth chapter. This throws light on the role of primordial factors
in entrepreneurial performance. Besides, it would also highlight
the role of primordiality in switching over to silk weaving from
cotton weaving in the village. It tries to show how marital alliances
and kinship networks have helped entrepreneurship in certain
traditional weaving castes, who, in turn, diffused it to the other
weaver castes/communities in introducing new products (e.g. silk
weaving) in the village. Particularly, how the emergence of master
weaving has helped in developing a commercial networking
system between entrepreneurs and suppliers of raw material on
one hand and between entrepreneurs and consumers on the other
is discussed in this chapter.
Our concern in the sixth chapter is to analyse the culture of
weaving. The role of tradition, customs and values and their
impact on the differentiation among different weaving
castes/communities in weaving enterprise is the focus in this
chapter. This chapter also provides a discussion on the role of life-
cycle rituals, socialisation, family, folklore, religious performances,
etc., in maintaining weaving traditions and in promoting
entrepreneurship among different castes/communities.
A summary of the findings and conclusions are presented in
the last chapter. Apart from summarising the findings, this chapter
points out to the contribution of our study to the anthropological
literature on entrepreneurship, in general, and handloom weaving
communities, in particular. The concluding chapter has policy
implications for occupations based cooperatives, in general, and
weavers cooperatives in particular. This chapter also points out
the kind of further research that is needed in the field of
entrepreneurship in anthropology.